Anne and Mary, fearsome pirates who were also lovers

Historian Rebecca Simon writes: Anne Bonny made an unforgettable impression from the bow of the pirate ship, Revenge, in the 1700s. Beautiful with fiery red hair that matched her temperament, she’d patrol the ship wearing a jacket and trousers, with a handkerchief tied around her head. Though forced to disguise herself as a man to lead the life she wanted, Anne proved herself to be just as skilled and ruthless as any pirate. One of the crew’s newer recruits was a man named Mark Read, and Anne found herself taken with him. She revealed that she was a woman and declared her love for him — not missing a beat, Read revealed that she was also a woman. Thus began a passionate, secret love affair between two of the most fearsome pirates of the time.

Did Coca-Cola have cocaine as an ingredient, and if so how much?

From a Twitter thread by journalist Trung Phan: "By the mid-1800s, Europeans were using cocaine recreationally. A popular way to consume it was in a drink called Vin Mariani (combo of cocaine and red wine). Famous fans of the beverage included Pope Leo XIII and President Ulysses S. Grant. After the end of the Civil War, pharmacists in America started cranking out 'patent medicines' to provide a buzz as well as relieve headaches and bodily pains. These unregulated concoctions contained hard drugs like morphine, opium, heroin and cocaine. John Stith Pemberton borrowed the Vin Mariani formula and added kola nuts — which have caffeine — to create Coca-Cola in 1886. But critics blamed the drink for cocaine addiction and stirred racist fears that it was leading to Black crime. Coca-Cola took out the cocaine in 1902."

Homemade submarine found with two tons of cocaine and two corpses

A narco submarine was discovered off the coast of Colombia containing over two tons of cocaine worth $87 million, as well as two dead bodies. The 15-meter long homemade sub was found floating in the Pacific over the weekend, most likely bound for Central America, an important corridor for transporting cocaine north toward the United States. It was when they boarded the sub that the Colombian Marines discovered dead bodies, as well as another two men who were alive but apparently suffering from the effects of poisonous gas from the boat’s fuel. It’s not clear whether the two people died from gas poisoning.

The “Quaker Comet” was the greatest abolitionist you’ve never heard of

On September 19, 1738, a man named Benjamin Lay strode into a Quaker meetinghouse in Burlington, New Jersey, for the biggest event of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. He wore a great coat, which hid a military uniform and a sword. Beneath his coat Lay carried a hollowed-out book with a secret compartment, into which he had tucked a tied-off animal bladder filled with bright red pokeberry juice. Lay, a Quaker himself, waited his turn. He finally rose to address this gathering of “weighty Quakers.” Many Friends in Pennsylvania and New Jersey had grown rich on slavery. “Thus shall God shed the blood of those persons who enslave their fellow creatures!” Lay thundered, and then plunged the sword through the book, splattering fake blood everywhere.

Charles Fort, philosopher of the damned

By “damned” the writer meant facts (or at least reports) that did not fit in: outsider testimonies, observations, theories, and ideas; items considered unfit for consumption, and so were pushed to the margins. Fort assembled news reports of things happening around the world that were not supposed to be occur, like objects in the sky before we had the term flying saucers; frogs, stones, and blood falling from the heavens; strange beasts (including wolf children and wild men); lights on the moon; floating islands; spontaneous human combustion; talking dogs; levitation; stigmatic wounds; clairvoyant visions; and teleportation, a term he is thought to have coined.

Comedian and actor Steve Martin used to sell trick ropes at Frontierland

A blogger who specializes in old photos of Disneyland describes one series of pictures: "This Summer 1959 shot is of the Zocalo marketplace in Frontierland. The detailed view shows Eddie Adamek’s trick rope stand. Only fifty cents; what a value! Looks like Eddie was on break, as well as comedian/writer/actor/banjo player/rope lasso expert supreme Steve Martin, who worked here for a short while. Steve gave a few other great details about this photo: 'It’s across from the Mine Ride, in fact, you can make out a few Rainbow Ridge buildings in the far right background. We were serenaded daily by the Trio Gonzales, whose music gazebo was just adjacent. Eddie got moved from the Blacksmith shop when it was converted into the Fritos restaurant."

The ping-pong playing cat